The Pasteurization of Jesus
Mark 4:1-2a, 32-34a February 14, 2016
I. In 1864, Louis Pasteur discovered that
heating beer and wine was enough to
kill most of the bacteria that caused
spoilage, preventing these beverages
from turning sour, and especially when
applied to dairy products it made them
safe for consumption.
It would seem that much the same is
done to Jesus parables; they have been
and often are pasteurized,
metaphorically speaking, to make them
safe for consumption.
A. Today we’re going to begin a dangerous
journey.
With the help Amy-Jill Levine, Professor
of New Testament and Jewish Studies at
Vanderbuilt University, we’re going to
start to consume some ‘unpasteurized’
parables.
B. It seems that ever since they were taken
from the lips of Jesus, commentators –
including the gospel writers- have tried
to make them safe for consumption.
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C. But when Jesus told them, they were
anything but safe.
II. Before we begin hearing Jesus voice,
there are some ground rules that we
must understand.
A. To begin with, as Amy-Jill tells us,
“Reducing parables to a single meaning
destroys their aesthetic as well as ethical
potential.” [p. 4]
1.
2.
Like a poem or a painting or a song, a
parable will evoke lots of interpretations.
a)
We can exclude some interpretations
based on reason, logic, context, etc.
b)
But that still leaves us numerous
possibilities.
So despite my unending attempts to do so,
that is to find the “right” explanation, we –
myself included- will try to keep an open
mind.
B. Next, Jesus was a Jew, speaking to Jews
so many of the anti-Semitic
interpretations, even some by the gospel
writers, clearly were not intended by
Jesus or heard by his original Jewish
audiences.
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C. Finally, a parable is a parable.
It’s not an allegory, it’s not an analogy.
Sometimes a story is just a story.
Sometimes an old woman is just an old
woman and a father is just a father.
III. With that let’s get back to the point that
we want to look at the “unpasteurized
versions of the parables.”
A. If you find comfort and reassurance in
reading the parables, then almost
certainly you’ve missed the point.
B. The parables were not intended to
uphold the status quo,
rather the parables were meant to
prompt the audience to “see the world in
a different way, to challenge, and at
times to indict…”
As Prof. Levine reminds us,
“We might be better off thinking less
about what they “mean” and more about
what they can “do”: remind, provoke
refine, confront, disturb…” [p. 5]
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C. Some of the things that make the
unpasteurized parables dangerous and
disturbing is they concern things that
mattered to Jesus;
things that don’t always make us feel
comfortable.
Things like:
1.
Economics
2.
Relationships
3.
Our priorities and values
4.
Yes, I see you’re already starting to squirm.
D. But Jesus also dealt with celebration.
1.
Celebrating the return of a lost son –
2.
A lost coin-
3.
A lost sheep –
4.
And there is the great banquet – the great
party.
5.
But perhaps these celebrations might be
more disturbing when we understand the
cause for the celebration.
6.
Quite often a parable is not what it at first
appears:
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a)
Like an apparent blessing that turns out
to be a curse; such as,
“May you outlive your children.”
b)
Or, what sounds like a curse may be a
blessing,
“May you die, before your children.”
c)
The parable may suggest the
unimaginable; like,
“Who among you teaching a class of 30
students would leave them alone,
unattended, while you go out searching
the streets for one who didn’t show up for
class.”
When this irresponsible teacher, or
shepherd, is held up as an example it
may cause you to think that there is more
to this story than meets the ear.
IV. It shall be our mission on this journey to
try to hear the words of Jesus from the
perspective of his original audience.
A. That means that you will want to try to
hear these words as would perhaps
an illiterate peasant who has lost his
land due to taxation by the Romans and
the Temple and now must sell a child
into slavery or indentured servitude so
as to pay off his debt and feed the rest of
his family
or
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as a widow whose only remaining assets
in the world are ten silver coins.
B. Most importantly, you would be hearing
these parables as a Jew listening to
another Jew.
C. Finally, this poor, illiterate Jew that you
are has no clue that this teacher, this
story teller will be crucified by the
Romans,
that some will see him as the messiah
and
that some of his followers will come to
declare that he is the Son of God;
but even more -- some will call him God.
D. Then once we have understood the
original context in which the parable
was told and heard what the original
hearers would have heard then we can
begin to excavate the many meanings
the parable holds and then we can ask,
“How does this speak to me now?”
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V. One other thing that will help us to
understand the parables is that
sometimes Jesus is using other Jewish
stories as background for his parables,
but we need to also recognize that he is
fitting into a role as parable teller that
other Jews had taken before him.
A. Parable telling has a long and important
history in Jewish scripture.
B. For instance,
Second Samuel 12:1‐7 records the prophet Nathan’s famous parable of the Ewe Lamb. Nathan was King David’s court prophet (think of Billy Graham to Richard Nixon), the figure who spoke to the conscience of the king. Following David’s adultery with Bathsheba and then his arranging the murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah (imagine, a politician who has an affair and then attempts to cover it up!), Nathan tells the king about “two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.” 7
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The rich man had large flocks, but the poor man had only one little ewe lamb – let’s call her Fluffy – who was “like a daughter to him.” When a visitor came to the rich man and it was time for dinner, the rich man took little Fluffy, butchered her, and served her for dinner. That’s the parable, and David, who takes it as an actual story, is incensed: “Then David’s anger was greatly kindled again the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die’” It gives most readers no small degree of satisfaction when Nathan then proclaims, “You are the man!” David hears the parable and indicts himself. This parable too should echo in the ears of anyone hearing Jesus’s parables that begin, “There was a rich man who…” His first‐
century audience was already primed to hear that the rich man did something oppressive to the poor man. [p. 6‐7] 8
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C. If we are hearing the parables of Jesus,
we will often find ourselves in the same
position as King David;
finding our judgments turned upside
down and sometimes indicting
ourselves.
D. In every case, the parables will affect us
differently in our context than they did
the original audience.
E. Sometimes we might find ourselves to
be the rich man, or the coin or the
prodigal.
VI. I hope that you will find these
unpasteurized parables to be a pearl of
great value and a journey well worth the
time to hear.
A. So next week, we will begin by hearing
the parables of the “lost.”
B. I promise you there will be some
surprises.
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C. But until then, let me read one of them
to you so you can begin, using the
ground rules we just heard, to think
about this parable and what Jesus may
have been saying.
4 “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety‐nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. 6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ [Mark 15] AMEN.
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